In this paper, we present a novel method for the dynamic balance of planar mechanisms, by transforming a mechanism into a dynamically equivalent form where all links have zero mass but non-zero moment of inertia. The dynamic balance of such pure-inertia systems is shown to be governed by mirror symmetry that cancels out the system’s total angular momentum. Our method not only covers well-known dynamically balanced 1-DOF mechanisms, such as the slider-crank and four-bar linkages, but also leads to the discovery of a novel dynamically balanced 2-DOF planar mechanism.@en

This paper explores the fundamentals of parallel robots with configurable platforms (PRCP), as well as the design and the kinematic analysis of those. The concept behind PRCP is that the rigid (non-configurable) end-effector is replaced by a closedloop chain, the configurable platform. The use of a closed-loop chain allows the robot to interact with the environment from multiple contact points on the platform, which reflects the presence of multiple end-effectors. This results in a robot that successfully combines motion and grasping capabilities into a structure that provides an inherent high stiffness. This paper aims to introduce the QuadroG robot, a 4 degrees of freedom PRCP which finely merges planar motion together with grasping capabilities.@en